Lennon – opera by Ivo Josipović

Possibly the highlight of 2023 was working on Ivo Josipović‘s opera ‘Lennon’. As the proofreader I helped refine the text of the libretto written by Marina Biti and as a translator I translated most of the superb book that is included in this deluxe box set produced by Croatia Records.

The box set contains 2 CDs, 2 LPs, DVD, Blu Ray disc, a 64-GB USB that contains all the digital contents plus the super 88-page glossy, large format book with the libretto, essays, reviews and all the details of the stage production.

The opera was first publicly performed on 24th April 2023 at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb and I was lucky enough to meet Croatia’s ex-president Ivo Josipović before the show.

The Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb was the venue for the first performance of Ivo Josipović’s opera ‘Lennon’
The performers take a bow at the end of the show.

The deluxe box set was launched by Croatia Records at the Croatian National Theatre on 8th December, 43 years after John Lennon’s murder in New York. I was very pleased to be invited and chatted with Mr Josipović after the dignitaries and media left.

It was a honour to be involved in such a prestigious project about one of my musical heroes and a global icon. I look forward to working with Croatia Records in the future.

Dubrovnik Museums Zbornik

The 5th edition of Zbornik Dubrovačkih muzeja celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Museums’ founding. This latest volume feature hundreds of articles, reviews, archaeological finds as well as the history and activities of each of the four Dubrovnik Museums throughout their 150 years.

Over 398 pages the book features lavish photographs of paintings, diagrams, letters, documents and previous publications by the Museums, as well as past and present archaeological digs, ground plans, illustrations and finds. It was a honour for me to provide the English translations for the majority of the summaries for each section in this impressive volume.

Publisher: Dubrovački muzeji 2022.
ISSN 1849-8876

Chess Olympiad commemorative catalogue

The 9th Chess Olympiad – Nations Tournament of 1950 was held in Dubrovnik, Croatia in 1950 and the team of the hosting country – FPR Yugoslavia – won. This catalogue of the exhibition published by Dubrovnik Museums commemorates this special occasion in the history of chess.

The exhibition catalogue is a superb commemorative edition.

The book features the whole story of the competition, the competitors, the ceremonies and the results. The highlight of this edition is the catalogue section of the postage stamps, first day covers, postcards, posters, chess sets – the Dubrovnik set later became a standard – and much more that were issued during and after the tournament.

As the English translator for the catalogue it was especially interesting to learn about the event and particularly about the philately part because I was an avid stamp collector as a schoolboy 🙂

The authors of the text are Tonko Marunčić and Zdenko Krištafor.
You can follow Dubrovnik Museums on Facebook here
…. there is more info about the tournament here.

15 Years of the Croatian Museum of Tourism

To celebrate 15 years of the work of the Croatian Museum of Tourism in Opatija a small press conference and exhibition was held in the Grand Hotel 4 Opatijska Cvijeta on 23rd November 2022.

To commemorate the extensive work of the Museum over these 15 years a superb 212-page book was printed packed with information about every poster, catalogue, collection, exhibition, publication, project and much more that it has been involved in.

As the English translator I am honoured to have played a small part in the Museum’s story for the last few years.

Published by HRMT. Texts by the Museum’s director Mirjana Kos, graphic design by Branko Lenić. Translation by Martin Mayhew 🙂
ISBN: 978-953-7601-78-2